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I'm not saying that anything incriminates Bush (I don't think anything has gotten that far yet), but I think it is hard to believe that a personal friend of the president has conversations with two cabinet members and the chairman of the Fed stating that his company (the largest energy broker in the world, one of the largest companies in the country) is in financial straits and no one mentions it to the president (nothing wrong with that except that the president said that he was unaware of the situation).

Its also kind of hard to believe that Lay didn't atleast try to contact the president (again there would be nothing wrong with that--money talks).

Bush had better be a terrific politician to dig out from under this mess. I would imagine we will now lose the House as well as the Senate. The Democrats will hang this around his neck just like Watergate. After this has played out there had better be some top execs who are trotted off in their orange jump suits. There can be no rational defense for this behavior and no stonewalling. Bush needs to get all the bad news out immediately; not later.

Basically, big friggin deal! Is calling someone asking for government help illegal? Did Chrysler do it in the late 70's and early 80's? Did the airlines do it after Sept 11th? Did LTCM do it in 1997? If the 7th largest corporation in the U.S. is about to declare bankruptcy, it might, just might, have some impact on the economy. Basically, this is a non-event.

Enron was a big contributor that used it's influence to ask high officials for a bailout. The officials said no. Democrats also received big money from Enron, including Bill Clintoon, Chuckie Schumer and Shiela Jackson Lee.

Am I missing something here? How is this another Watergate? To borrow another phrase from the past, where's the beef?

On Oct. 26, Mr. Lay called Mr. Greenspan, (three days before the employee shut down) but the Fed wouldn't disclose details of the call. "Mr. Greenspan did nothing in response. That would have been inappropriate," a Fed spokesman said.
On Oct. 28, Mr. Lay spoke by telephone to Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill. The next day he reached Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, an old friend who, as Mr. Bush's chief campaign fund-raiser, knew Mr. Lay well.

At the time, there were reports that Moody's Investor Services was considering lowering its credit rating on Enron debt securities.

The company said employees were notified by mail Oct. 4 that accounts would be frozen from Oct. 29 through Nov. 12. Enron said several reminders were sent via the company's internal e-mail system before Oct. 29 as well.

But did Enron inform their employees prior to Oct.29 that during the shutdown/blackout Enron was going to go begging the Federal government and the FED for a bailout because they were about to go under, or more accurately, sinking fast?

PBS Frontline 2001 Interview with Enron's Ken Lay on the California Energy Story

"You understand when people read this in the newspaper ...

I think you need to keep in mind also, for better or for worse, we had a lot of access in the Clinton administration. Certainly [former Secretary of Energy Bill] Richardson called on me and Enron on a number of occasions to at least discuss different energy matters, [I] was asked a few times even by then-Chief of Staff Mack McLarty about various energy matters, and [former Treasury Secretary Robert] Rubin on other matters. As a major energy company in the country doing a lot of international business too, we have a lot of reason to, in fact, talk with different officials in our government just like they have many reasons to talk with us.....

You recently had a meeting with Governor Davis in Sacramento?

I did.

Is Governor Davis correct in saying that you told him that things are going to get a lot better because Pat Wood is going to be on the commission?

I think he's told me that. He said he met with Pat Wood and he was convinced that, in fact, things would get better with him on the commission. ... He was convinced that Pat Wood would take a lot more proactive role in trying to help California solve its problem."